Esasban
by Kingleon
Summary: A long fanfic that's also posted on Mpire, a Magi-Nation fansite. Concerns characters of my own creation. Please Review.
1. First Chapter

Chapter 1: Esasban  
  
The girl, her dark hair streaming behind her, fell off the branch and on to the back of the Core creature. It squealed, like a hog, and the weird thing of tentacles and jaws sent a shock of black magic along its body to the girl. She was barely unfazed as she drew her sword and did the horrifying mass in. It didn't bleed. There was almost a look of surprise as its body faded out, dropping a few blackened crystals onto the forest moss. The warrior sighed, then snatched up the crystals and slid her long sword back.  
  
Another day in the life of those destined to only fight the weakest evils...  
  
The man already had a beard that stretched to the floor. The sad thing was that it had been a day since he had shaved and the beard ended in several long colored stripes. A small bush also happened to be growing in it. He snapped his fingers. Two small leaves appeared in midair and cut the excess hair away. He controlled them, using his mind, clipping away like airborne scissors. He ended with a tiny "dapper" moustache. Well, he thought it looked "dapper". The man then pointed a finger at the mess around his knees and it vanished, including the damn bush. He glanced outside and sighed. A dozen dark clouds filled his view. That and a few trees.  
  
Well, fine, quite a few trees. Quite variably, more trees than sky. There just wasn't a nearby desert or mountain, so he had to do his little hermitage in a forest. He was getting sick of trees. But that didn't matter, his research is what mattered. His research practically mattered even more than anything in his life did.  
  
She stopped and waited, sitting on a branch. She wasn't Naroom by even fourteen generations, but she had always liked trees. She liked anything if it kept her out of this rain.  
  
The storm wasn't stopping the dream energy from coming. White, lighting-like flashes came with the real flashes. With every Dream flash, a creature could be seen appearing. People only ever thought of Dream Creatures when they thought of forests. Why? Her glance came down on a group of hares that were sitting under a large log to get from the rain. There was a flash and two Eebits; like larger, frumpier hares; appeared, cuddling with them. A small glow appeared and a third Eebit nestled in with them. Dream Creatures attract more, basic rule. She watched for a few more seconds until the Eebits evaporated into glows. It was rather sad that some Magi didn't even know about this.  
  
The rain began to patter off. She slipped off the branch, fell a few feet, and took out her map. It was slightly soaked and falling to bits, but the image of a tiny hut but two miles west of the river was all she cared about. She seemed to be on the right track. Just earlier today, she had gone past the dead tree, taller even than one of the trees Naroom people made their homes out of (or on, she considered). She'd had lunch in it's shadow, like sitting next to an enormous ivory tower.  
  
A sudden, loud noise as the rain stopped made her look up.  
  
It was a shrill, almost acidic noise as the awful Grax appeared, seeming almost to step out of a shadow. It was what she liked to call a burst of Dark Energy, but this was a basically incorrect idea, as the man with the moustache would say.  
  
She hated the Dark Energy. They had begun appearing since 'the great Kyros had showed up in the east', in the great city of Vash Naroom. And the shadow geysers with him. Now what was once like happy fireworks as magnificent beasts had appeared and disappeared was now a dirtied thing. An awful feline beast called a Chaos Jile had killed a child. Some Dream Creatures themselves (REAL Dream Creatures, she called them) had become wild at different bursts. A hyren, one of the great Flame Hyrens that dance over the Cald lava pits on thermals, had even attacked a wandering magi. He had been pushed into a lava pool and burnt halfway up. He would never walk again, they hadn't gotten to him quick enough.  
  
And she would stop this. She would kill these awful things, even though she could only stop the ones that appeared in the wilds. But it would help. That was what she told herself.  
  
The Grax made weird screeches, clawing the air. It seemed to be waiting for a Dream Creature to be summoned. It seemed to say, Give me a challenge. She didn't doubt for a minute that the Grax and other Core weren't smart enough to boast. They were. But she didn't Dream anything. No rings adorned her fingers, like captured fireflies and beetles. Instead only a long, thin blade; no curvatures, ornaments or enchantments; was drawn.  
  
She seemed to throw her self at the thing, getting the element of surprise. It toppled backwards; losing an arm as it went under her tackle. It recovered and hit her with a black wave of energy. For a minute, she felt sick but she recovered enough to keep it down.  
  
She had been too slow still. What seemed to be a small spark of black electricity suddenly became a second Grax. She swore.  
  
Jumping off of the first Grax she had wounded, she sliced at the newcomer, anything so it could not use any of its power. By luck it was actually killed, falling from its slight float and fading out. She turned back and got hit by the second wave of Core energy from the first Grax. But this Grax, no matter how powerful it appeared to be, was now drooping. She finished it off with a careful blow. She didn't even bother with their animite; she had enough money and had no interest in Core creatures. No dream creatures at all, in fact.  
  
Setting her long sword into the leather frame on her back, she turned to the west. The rain was gone. Another day in a futile fight. But it might be the day she met the one she seeked...  
  
Her name is Esasban and she has no magic. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:  
  
The man woke up rather badly. He must have fallen asleep studying again, but in the middle of the day, which to him was unthinkable. His face was stuck to a page describing the "natural energy transitions measured during spell usage by different regional magi...".  
  
He slowly got up and stretched. He spat something out of the hut's door and shook his head. Something had woken him up? Like a twinkling? Or perhaps a 'tinkling'?  
  
Then that noise that had woken him up came again. He stood very still, like a statue made by a very insane and evil artist. Oh no, now what, he thought.  
  
He heard the noise a third time, this time much louder than before. He ran out of his hut, grabbing a staff by the door.  
  
It was just a tiny clearing with a hut. But Esasban couldn't there. Whenever she tried, she ended up to the left, or right, about a hundred feet away. She tried to keep her eyes focused on it, but she still seemed to go right past it. Either this "wizard" had cast an illusion or a barrier. Or maybe a mind affecting spell. She had no idea which.  
  
Well, the inner Esasban thought, if she couldn't get to the hut the easy way, then she would do it the hard way.  
  
She dropped her bag then took out a good deal of rope that she had found attached to an old branch a few days ago. Esasban first tied it around her waist then put the other end around a nearby tree. It gave her about twenty feet of loose slack. Drawing her sword, she looked straight at the hut, then shut her eyes tight. She charged the hut.  
  
She had run through the underbrush for a few minutes before she suddenly tripped. Sort of. It felt like running into an enormous sack filled with water. It seemed to rebound her at first, until Esasban stuck her sword in it. There was an odd 'tinkle' sound and the wall she had run into seemed to become hard and flat, like a pane of glass. It fell over on her.  
  
Now she opened her eyes. To a squirrel, had a squirrel stopped to take a moment out of its squirrel life to look over at a non-squirrel, would have seen what seemed to be what human girl crouching under some unseen force. Then the furry observer, had there actually been one, would have wondered why this human had decided to flail violently at the air with a sword.  
  
There was a sound like 'tinkle' and for a single moment a dome of yellow-pink energy appeared over the hut. Part of it had fallen on the girl. Then, before the outline of pink could disappear, that toppled flat section suddenly disintegrated, becoming tiny orange shards that soon evaporated.  
  
Esasban stood up and began to attack at the area around the 'hole' of suspiciously clear air. More and more parts began to shatter and fall. The actual hut flickered several times as she destroyed the barrier in the tradition of all single-minded people with swords. When she had made an Esasban-sized hole, the entire barrier glowed once more and everything shattered. A very large 'TINKLE' pre empted the coming of a man with a long staff in his hands. He rubbed his hands over a small moustache.  
  
Meeting people with large swords and a willingness to destroy innocent magical shields in your backyard, was not one of the things commonly with being a hermit. "Who the hell are you?" also seemed to suffice as a greeting to such annoying people.  
  
Esasban just stared. He looked no more than five years older then her! What was this?! She just shrugged, not realizing this meant she seemed to shake her sword.  
  
What he saw was a girl wearing what was actually a rather sensible and not too revealing outfit, with a sword in her hands and a rope tied, for some reason, around her waist. The sword seemed to be quite large; in fact her shaking of it seemed to dictate control over his entire future. "I, er, you, I... uh..." His voice, normally eloquent, now stuttered.  
  
Who cared how old he was? He was the 'wizard'... She sheathed her sword. "Are you the one called the wizard of Tabe Wes? The Great Spell Caster of Oerbu?"  
  
His face changed from fear to stone. "No, I don't really get to town lately..."  
  
"The one who defeated the insane Cald magi Beop'n at Vareak?"  
  
He shrugged. "I wouldn't know his name..."  
  
She sighed. "Is your name Kalus Arc?"  
  
"Of course," Kalus Arc said. "I am he."  
  
"I have come for something, great magi-"  
  
"Really?!" He was a bit taken a back. Two months into his hermitage and girls were all ready coming to him for weird potions and the like, eh? This one had a sword, and he hadn't exactly mastered the art of Alchemy yet (technically, Kalus couldn't even safely mix a drink), but we might as well, ahem, listen to her problems, right? "Well, you just tell me all about it... I can always listen to someone's problem, poor girl..."  
  
A sword appeared "Don't patronize me. Okay?"  
  
"All right." He said. The sword disappeared. "Wait... Didn't you just destroy my barrier?"  
  
"Yes. Yes, I did. Is there something wrong?"  
  
"Uh... No." He pulled a book out of his pocket, then quickly skimmed a page, then put it back. He struck his staff against the ground and shut his eyes. A simple effecter... with everything added on it. Yellow lighting spun out of his staff, reaching high into the sky, past the top branches of the trees. An enormous pink orb suddenly traveled down the bolt, striking the top of the staff. There was a pink flash and the dome appeared again. The bolt dropped back into staff, some of it seeming to earth itself into the dome.  
  
"There. I added an electrical shock to the spell."  
  
Esasban closed her mouth, which had treacherously opened during the spell. "Wizard... My name is Esasban. I am the only person I have ever met who has no magic. I can not even summon the weakest creature nor cast the most simplistic cantrip. I am an outcast..."  
  
For a moment the man's face looked clouded, as if Kalus remembered something. Then his face became stern. "Great... What were you looking for, another freak? Please, don't bother with me."  
  
He turned and walked back to the hut. She ran forward and grabbed his shoulder. "Aren't you Kalus Arc? The one who can't summon a Dream Creature but can cast spells never before imagined or thought of?"  
  
He turned. "That I am. You found yourself another freak, Esasban." 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:  
  
The sound of chop-chop-chop was the only noise in the glade. Esasban stared out the hut's door. The forest around the hut had no dream bursts. Dream Creatures hated being around man made things.  
  
The hut, unfortunately, was one of those twisted places in space. The inside was quite bigger, but still small. There was only a table, a desk, a bed and a large chest, that apparently was filled with food stores. Books covered the desk and even the bed. Esasban was sitting at one of the two chairs while Kalus chopped at some long orange roots that she couldn't recognize. She thought they'd been in her soup when she had stopped at an inn near her. His knife chopped the root into small round discs. A large brown round piece of meat sizzled in a pot over a campfire that he had started. Esasban looked over at the man. He was wearing a short robe, with a pair of threadbare pants under them. Small shoes poked out from underneath his baggy assortment. Even though he was only a little older, he was only about her height. A bit thin, too. The moustache was the oddest part, really. She had never seen anyone with a moustache like that.  
  
After they had spoken, he had gone back in and she had waited outside. Eventually he had called out if she wanted dinner and she had come inside. The only thing he had said so far was to sit down. Now she was doing that, waiting for him to speak. Was the man impolite or what?  
  
Kalus turned and knocked the chopped root into the pot. He came back in and sat down after moving the second chair away from the desk. There was a very long pause. "Aren't you going to speak?" he asked.  
  
"I was waiting for you. You're my host."  
  
"I didn't invite you here."  
  
"You invited me in."  
  
Kalus sighed. "Alright, what did you come here for? And it better not be you just wanting to meet me." He added bitterly.  
  
She sat up. "Kalus Arc. I first heard of you in D'resh. While there I was searching for someone who could help me with a problem. I was with my brother and we were looking for someone who could... bring me magic-"  
  
Kalus jumped up. "I can't do that! I don't know what you expect of me- "  
  
"No, n-no, no, I'm here for that!" She grabbed his arm. "Please listen. While me and my brother were on the way to Naroom, I was checking out a trail farther ahead. It was a dead end so I came back. My brother was gone and our camp was ransacked. I found blood and the dead body of a Core magi. My brother was an experienced Magi who collected rare creatures while we were on our travel, and the venom of one of his creatures had killed that shadow magi. But the red blood I found was that of a normal person. There was a lot of it and the signs of like a struggle. One of my brother's rings, I found it among the blood..."  
  
Kalus stepped backwards. "So, he's dead. Those rings practically have to be ripped off along with the finger. I don't see what you want..."  
  
"I need you to find his body! That's what I want!"  
  
"You came here for that?" He half-grinned but even he hated himself for that. He sat down. "Couldn't you have gone somewhere else?"  
  
"No. My brother is in the Core. Two senior magi at the Weave told me."  
  
"Humph. They probably couldn't find out the exact where..."  
  
She nodded. "You're the only spell caster who's able to do it. To defeat the protection spells of the Core." She wrenched Kalus into his seat. "Please. It's for my brother's honor..."  
  
"Burial. Hmm... I think I might be able to do it."  
  
"I don't have much to bargain with..." She seemed to reach to the inside of her jacket.  
  
An idea that had entered Kalus's mind a few hours ago (Fine, a fantasy) now seemed like a disgusting thing. No way he was going to do this... even he had some decency. "Uhhh... No, NO, that's, that's okay..."  
  
"Here." She handed the spell caster a small book from a pocket.  
  
"Oh." He turned rapidly in his seat to hide his blush at his embarrassment. "Well, er, this is a small spell book. A collection by... 'Mr. Blank'?"  
  
She suddenly snatched it out of his hands. "We found it in a ruin. They were actually a collection of scrolls. My brother sold them to a keeper of a library and he gave us a book he copied them into in exchange. He said some of the spells he had never heard of before. My brother kept it but he couldn't understand some of the words..."  
  
"Hmm... and Mister Blank?"  
  
The girl shrugged. "Name was on the scrolls. You can have it once you do your job."  
  
He half-grinned again. The book did sound interesting, though he had doubts about what she was telling him about it. He got up and picked up two books from his bed. He seemed to search through one. "Divination... Pure's theory on Core... Drachan's pseudo-Morpheus diagram..."  
  
"Well?"  
  
"What?" He looked up from a tome that seemed to be half burned.  
  
"Do you want the job?"  
  
"Of course. What sort of person would I be if I didn't help a poor girl restore honor to her family? Let me study these for a little while and I can do it tonight, no problem." A small explosion made both of them look outside the house.  
  
"There goes dinner," said Esasban. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:  
  
A cooling plate of meat and "Kaerritt"s sat on the table across from Kalus. Esasban forked the last piece of the odd vegetable into her mouth and chewed on it. Kalus continued to study a large tome. It said the 'Necronomical Adventures of the Mad Wizard Sailor of Iper'aqu and His Observations There In.' The book smelled, but not as strongly as the night air.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat? You cooked it."  
  
"Yes," he said distracted. He moved the fork over a bit, meaningly. It chinked. "In a minute..."  
  
"Huh. Just what is this one about?"  
  
"Oh, this one guy that sailed a boat into a fold of space time. He appeared to end up in the Core and before he was able to find a way out, he tried several spells as a test.  
  
"I remembered something about a scrying spell- ah. '...and Dequth, my skipper, after defeating the giant squid-bird Rooci, used a divination to find the second mate who was lost in the battle. Upon using the spell, we were attacked by a group of merciless spirits who mentally accosted the mind Dequth. And so we started a half of a divination spell than completed another to fool them. The first spell group was attacked, and since the caster was ready, were able to turn back the ghosts. I, the caster for the second group, succeeded in finding the second-mate, who was still alive. We then returned to the ship to sail through the new gate, and Dequth died several days later...'" His voice petered off.  
  
"Well? Do you think that will happen? We're not in the core."  
  
"Um... I hope not. You're right but depending on the spell, your being ends up in the place you are scrying. And if he is dead or, possibly, alive, he'll be in a prison. Which means it will be even harder." He sighed and shivered in the cold. He started to eat. "I wish I wasn't the only one who could do this, but I have an awful feeling that I am."  
  
"We better start soon."  
  
"Yes. I have all the diagrams and spells I'll need copied out. You just keep that sword drawn and keep your eyes open. I... may not be the one coming back."  
  
She nodded and stood up. She drew her sword and seemed to compose herself. It was not a time for words.  
  
Kalus still wasn't sure why he was doing it. Maybe because no one else could. He swallowed his last piece of food loudly; than drank a little water from the sack he had hanging on the wall. He picked up his simple wooden staff and walked out with her.  
  
He said a word over the dead fire and it burst into sudden flame. Silently, he took the sheet of spells out of his pocket and cleared his voice. Putting the spell sheet down, he raised his staff and chanted something long. Then Esasban heard him scream.  
  
BLINK. BLINK.  
  
He was no longer in his body. It wasn't somewhere else. It wouldn't exactly fit the description of actual place. This place was just along that binding cord, made by the spell when it was cast. But Kalus had been stopped.  
  
What? Where am I?  
  
... Somewhere on a plane just outside the Core... Who... who are you...  
  
I am someone, who is here, said the Kalus spirit, defiantly. The cord must have caught on something. Who are you?  
  
No one... just someone... who is here too...  
  
Oh? Really? Can you help me?  
  
Yes... yes, you're free now... By the way, thank you for spending so much time here... longer you take near the Core... the quicker it takes for them to find you...  
  
What? Oh. Right. Obviously. I better find him quickly then. Thank you.  
  
You're welcome. Yes... yes... you should, Mister Kalus Arc.  
  
Oh no. How do you know my name? What are you, really?  
  
Oh yes. Heh... heh... heh... Thank you... and Good-Bye...  
  
Suddenly, Kalus was in. Or just outside of the Core. It was like a globe or a world. Other shapes surrounded him, a helix and a hole. What did those mean? Should he worry about those?  
  
The diagrams! He needed to get back out into the Moonlands and refer to the diagrams better...  
  
He tried to pull back on the cord but the release on the spell was failing him. Oh, please, don't let me die, he thought. No way back unless he did- that would be very dangerous, but it was the only way back.  
  
Images, scenes went by as his spectral form came closer and closer to the round Core shape. The shields were there, threatening to stop him. But the shields weren't normal. The protection spells weren't just one spell. They were millions, pieced together into one. And each one was... alive. They were all very much alive. It was like hitting a swarm of bees. He was attacked from every way at once. Something deep within him was able to well up and cast a protection force around him. He seemed to slide between the dark spirits, ignoring them. They began to bash against his spell, trying to push out. But they couldn't do break it.  
  
In a few seconds, he went past them and entered the Core. Now he could do his work. Kalus split himself in two ('ReRe's Spontaneous Mind Split') and looked at the Core. Every direction, every way. Each self continued to split, floating as an invisible spirit over the terrain of the Core.  
  
Time passed. How long, who knew when you were in millions of pieces? What could be the main self, stopped searching. He should have, it thought, asked more about Esasban's brother, it would have helped him locate him, but there was no way to help it now. A name probably could have helped the most.  
  
There was a noise like a tidal wave. His other selves suddenly appeared around him, filling the dark sky in a way only he could see.  
  
A dead body with magi rings on it. No taint. Seven of them. One is missing. Go there, his other self told him in a silent voice.  
  
Kalus's spirit floated over this area. There were a few living souls down there, but they seemed to be more worried and saddened then malevolent. There were a few dead bodies. But the entire area was 'locked', like a series of protections. Most were turned inwards (probably a prison, now that he thought of it), so they were pretty easy to destroy from the outside. The last ones posed a problem, though. They were set up to collapse and implode the area if any destruction magic was turned onto them.  
  
Finally, he just blew them apart in a large fiery blast. That area in the Core might be a bit destroyed, but who cared?  
  
After breaking the last few, he entered the cell with the body he had been looking for in it. He couldn't see it in his ultra-dimensional etheral form, but he could sense things. He could tell that it was male, near Esasban's age and was wearing similar clothing. There was something else about the body... but he couldn't figure it out. It probably didn't matter. It seemed to be taint. But it wasn't. It was something different.  
  
He had been hired to find the body, but wouldn't be too hard to bring it back, would it?  
  
Like hearing a gunshot, he sensed something big was happening. A spell was being cast to move this part of the core. Why? Maybe because of him, but his Bert's Dimensional Hiding Spell was still holding. No one, not even Agram could have sensed him. He couldn't sense the destination where this part of the Core was going, anyway. It was too far from the Core itself. Kalus made a decision and did three things very quickly. He cast the biggest blasting spell he could create at the Core barrier and teleported the body of Esasban's brother to his hut. It disappeared and with the very last remains of his energy he dispelled his own scrying spell and hiding spell. Like a yoyo, his ethereal form spun wildly backwards through the blasted hole in the living shield. The cord held, thank Agadon. Then-  
  
BLINK. BLINK. OUCH.  
  
"Ow," he said. He lay backwards on the grass. He felt like throwing up. Every bit of energy was gone. He couldn't even blink. After while, there was a odd noise, like a rabbit getting killed, and he twitched.  
  
"Kalus!" cried Esasban somewhere.  
  
Finally, he summoned the strength to sit up.  
  
"I- oh..." A tall, dark figure was standing behind Esasban, who was standing next to the fire. It was holding her own longsword to her neck.  
  
"Hmm..." said someone, with a deep bass voice. The resemblance to Esasban was startling, except for the streaks. Bright green streaks glowed across his face, like scars. At least he found the right one, thought Kalus. "You're the one who brought me here?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"I could sense you. I was terrified feeling my body go numb. I couldn't move in that prison. Thank you for helping me."  
  
"Look, why are you holding a sword to your sister's throat?" the wizard said,then coughed.  
  
There was silence. Then the brother spoke. "She attacked me."  
  
"He's Core! He's shadow! You stupid wizard, what have you done!" she squealed.  
  
"I didn't anything," the wizard said in a quiet voice. "It must have happened in the Core."  
  
"But- I have no idea what is happening to me!" Esasban's brother yelled into the night.  
  
"What? You can't see? You're changing... you accepted the Core into your body, Gijasan? How could you..." Esasban said, tears running down his face. The dripped onto the blade at her neck.  
  
"I didn't! You, the one who saved me, what has happened to me? Do you know?"  
  
Kalus shook his head. "I don't. But... I think your sister is right."  
  
"Kill yourself!" Esasban cried out. "Don't let the power of the taint ruin the family's honor!"  
  
Esasban's brother paused. His face looked like he was in pain. "But Sis, I didn't... that stuff changed me!"  
  
"Does that matter? If you can still think without shadow, then take my sword and do the right thing! Brother! Gijisan, listen!"  
  
Kalus panted for breath as his limbs cried out in protest as he stood up. "There much be a way to save him still, I might be able to do something..."  
  
"NO!" Gijisan screamed. "Look at me! I am not shadow! I am not untainted! I don't need saving!"  
  
Suddenly, the flame next to the siblings rose up, becoming a red-hot pillar. Kalus got a better look at Gijisan than just the face. He was taller than Esasban, with long dark hair in a pony-tail behind his head. The expression on his face was fear and confusion at the fire. The wizard, magi and bladewoman watched the flame until it began to die back to normal.  
  
"I did that...?" Esasban's brother said. His form was once more a dark shadow, with only the glowing green marks visible.  
  
Kalus nodded.  
  
"Then... I am more powerful. Something has happened."  
  
"You couldn't tell?"  
  
"But... I feel liking for the Core. I still hate Agram-" The magi's body shuddered. "And yet, my body says to kill. I hate life. Why?"  
  
Kalus shrugged. "Put the sword down. I'll try to see in the books. Maybe there is something about this. I may help you. If not, we can search out healers."  
  
Esasban was silent then she spoke. "But... Gijisan! Your... condition! It could be a weapon!"  
  
"What?!" the two men said.  
  
"He has the power of the Core but no allegiance to them! You are stronger for their mistake of tainting you!"  
  
There was a long pause. When Gijisan spoke, it was in an odd, quiet voice. "No. I will not be a simple weapon for the needs of those who hate the Core. I am in an odd position now." Esasban's brother dropped the sword and stepped quickly backwards, crouching low. "The change had only made me more powerful, and yet not under the control of he that controls the Core. But my soul is tarnished simply for possessing such power and... I can't be around anymore. I feel like I need to hurt, to kill, to plunge a weapon in the flesh. Any flesh, even your's. Right now, I want to kill you."  
  
There was a noise, a strange cry of pain from Gijisan. His body shuddered again. "I must have my revenge against the Core. On my own. We'll never have honor, if I don't. But I can't have you near me. I might hurt you or kill you if I lose control. What to do? I can only do one thing."  
  
"Brother, please stay..." Esasban said, having turned to look at him. "We might help you stop your urges..."  
  
"No. My mind is made up. If you meet me again, be weary of my reasons. Goodbye, sis." The dark figure suddenly turned and ran. He hit the invisible pink shield and the barrier seemed to melt around him. It once more fell to pieces with a tingling sound. The last they saw of Gijisan was a dark form seeming to fly away, flitting from branch to branch of the giant trees.  
  
Kalus half-grinned weakly. "I really have to make a stronger protection spell than that." 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:  
  
Kalus drank the white liquid slowly. It tasted like mud. It was powdered baloo root. The stuff was hideous, but it did revive most of your energy.  
  
Esasban cried softly from Kalus's bed. First time there was a girl anywhere near his bed and she was crying about her brother. Of course, right now, Kalus Arc was trying to sort out what had just happened. He had an idea going, but it meant he had screwed up about two times.  
  
He downed the last of the Baloo drink and started to look through some book that he had thrown off of his bed so Esasban could lay down. One had opened on the pseudo-Morpheus diagram. He breathed out a little and picked it up. It showed a large gaping chasm. The "real" plane balanced over the hole and the "Dream" plane was the bottom. Energy flowed upwards. The core was in the middle, wedged in there, with the energy floating through it. That's why some dream creatures were... dark. At least that was Drachan's theory.  
  
Esasban had stopped crying. He looked over. She was asleep. The sun was just peaking over the tops of the trees outside. Kalus stared for a few minutes, and then he got up and picked up a few more books.  
  
Esasban yawned and sat up in bed. The sun was high in the sky, almost noon. Kalus was snoring softly from his desk. A glass with a film of white stood on the desk next to him. It smelled.  
  
Gijisan was somewhere out there. He used to get mad at times. Like when the Naroom magi had made fun of him when she had lost the contest... he had summoned his Hyren. Afterwards they had ran off and Gijisan had laughed. He'd felt sorry about it later, but not then.  
  
Her sword was still laying on the ground outside. She picked it up and slung it on her back. A sound behind her made her turn quickly. Her hand went back to her sword...  
  
"Hello," said Kalus.  
  
She relaxed. "My brother..."  
  
"I have a theory about that." He waited then he began. "I teleported him here after I felt the prison I was in... move. Or get ready to move. I now know that was bit rash, but I sensed a dead body. All I did was bring it here. I think that I thought he was dead because your brother was being changed into a shadow magi. And I still think there might be a way to change him back. But it's part of something I don't understand. The Core are kidnapping Magi and obviously changing some of them into Shadow Magi. Maybe if we can find what forced the change...?"  
  
She shrugged.  
  
"But first," Kalus went on, "I have to find out what I met there. I talked to something. I just don't know if it has to do with your brother..."  
  
She rubbed her cheek. "I don't know if Gijisan wants to be unchanged. It will hurt him that he can't love someone anymore. But, I know, I really know, that inside of Gijisan is someone who would is person who wanted this."  
  
She stood silently. A few more tears would have run down her face, if her eyes had had any left. Kalus just stood there.  
  
"I think he did give in and he doesn't want to acknowledge that fact."  
  
Kalus licked his lips. "You're saying you don't want to do anything? But he could hurt, maybe kill-"  
  
"Yes! But not the Moonland magi! The Core magi is who he's after!"  
  
Realization split over his face, then almost disgust. "You want to leave him as a loose cannon?!"  
  
"Why not?" Esasban stared at his face with a half-grin, like Kalus would give normally.  
  
"But you're using your brother like a weapon! Do you only care about destroying the Tainted? How you can you be so cold not to help him?"  
  
"Because he's my brother and I know when not to try and mess with him. This is what he wants, I think, and I'll accept that."  
  
Kalus backed down. "Fine. It's your own business." He leaned against the hut side. "You want lunch?" He grinned. It made his head feel better.  
  
She wiped the rest of the tears from her face and made a full grin, too. It was the first time he had seen her smile. She didn't look beautiful just because of that smile, but with the noon sun shining down, the smell of living forest, and the smile she was. "Yes, Kalus, I would like to have lunch." 


End file.
